Commissioners

Commissioner Diana Chapin

Diana Chapin is the executive director of the Queens Library Foundation and is a founding and current member of the Historic House Trust, which works with the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation to protect and preserve historic houses.

She has served as the First Deputy Commissioner of the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, and as Deputy Commissioner for Planning and Capital Projects at the Parks Department, where she regularly reviewed landscape and architectural projects. She also served as the Parks Department’s first borough commissioner in Queens, and oversaw Community Relations for the agency. She was also a deputy commissioner at the New York City Department of Buildings.

Commissioner Chapin earned a bachelor’s degree in English at the University of Michigan, and a master’s degree and Ph.D. in medieval literature at Cornell University and was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow and Dissertation Fellow. She is also a member of the Municipal Art Society and The New York Landmarks Conservancy, and lives in a historic district in Queens. Commissioner Chapin is one of two Queens representatives on the Commission. She was appointed in 2007.